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In 2015 alone, more than 1.1 million
refugees streamed into Germany seeking a new life. Thousands
more have arrived since then. For many, finding
work is a key step in the successful integration into a new society.
To help with this transition, the city of Berlin held
Germany’s first refugee-only job fair in December of 2016. Berliner Glas, a
company that designs and manufactures optical components, assemblies, and
systems, was one of the 211 companies that met with more than 4,000 refugee job
seekers during the one-day event. The attendees came from a wide variety of
vocational backgrounds -- from science and technology to sales and
construction. They also presented challenges not usually found among
native-born German job applicants.
"The integration of refugees into everyday work
does not succeed just by pressing a button, said Dr. Regina Draheim-Krieg, head
of Human Resources at Berliner Glas.” Many conditions have to be fulfilled and
willingness from both the company and th…

Rafael Yuste and his research
group at Columbia University are trying to image the neural
circuits of the brain in hopes of gaining a better understanding of how
the brain functions.
However, said Yuste in a recent tour and video interview of his lab with SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, “The methods in neuroscience have not been there yet.”
Yuste is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and co-director of the Kavli Institute for Brain Circuits at Columbia. He and David Boas (director of the optics division of the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School) chair the new Brain applications track at SPIE Photonics West 2017 in San Francisco, running 28 January through 2 February.
Using
novel optical techniques such as two-photon and nonlinear microscopy,
Yuste’s lab is trying to bring 3D imaging to the activity of the neural
circuits inside the brain. It isn’t yet understood how…

Guest blogger: Emily Power is a 2016 graduate
in communications from Western Washington University, and most recently social
media intern for SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. She blogged on responses to the SPIE #FacesofPhotonics campaign, to share the
stories of SPIE students around the globe. This is the second of four posts.
One of the many perquisites of being a student in the optics and
photonics field is being able to pass along knowledge to those who will follow
your footsteps in the future. Throughout the #FacesofPhotonics campaign, it
became clear that current SPIE students thrive on educating a younger
generation while simultaneously working diligently on their own academic
careers.
In this post, we feature students who have educated others as well
as themselves. Teboho Bell is from the
Republic of South Africa, and is involved with the Council for Scientific and
Industrial Research (CSIR) Optics Student Chapter in South Africa. He is
currently a rese…

Authored by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, the Photonics for a Better World blog focuses on research news and the many ways technologies are applied to advance science and improve quality of life, and on the people who make that happen.